John T. Alexander Professor of History and Russian and European Studies, University of Kansas Robert A. Divine George W. Littleﬁeld Professor in American History Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin John V. Lombardi Professor of History, University of Florida

THE HISTORY OF

FINLAND
Jason Lavery

The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling, Series Editors

Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lavery, Jason Edward. The history of Finland / Jason Lavery. p. cm.—(Greenwood histories of the modern nations, ISSN 1096–2905) Based on a lecture course given since the summer of 1992 for the Helsinki Summer University in Finland. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–32837–4 1. Finland—History. I. Title. DL1032.L384 2006 948.97—dc22 2006021333 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 2006 by Jason Lavery All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006021333 ISBN: 0–313–32837–4 ISSN: 1096–2905 First published in 2006 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To S. K. W.

ContentsSeries Foreword Preface Timeline of Historical Events 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 An Introduction to Finland Finland’s Origins: Prehistoric and Historic Finland as Part of the Swedish Realm (circa 1157–1809) The Creation of Autonomous Finland (1809–1890) Oppression, Independence, and Civil War (1890–1918) Finland between the World Wars (1918–1939) Finland at War (1939–1945) Finland during the Cold War (1944–1991) European Finland in a Globalizing World ix xi xv 1 17 31 51 71 91 113 133 155

viii Notable People in the History of Finland Selected Bibliographical Essay Index

Contents 171 181 187

Series ForewordThe Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations series is intended to provide students and interested laypeople with up-to-date, concise, and analytical histories of many of the nations of the contemporary world. Not since the 1960s has there been a systematic attempt to publish a series of national histories, and, as editors, we believe that this series will prove to be a valuable contribution to our understanding of other countries in our increasingly interdependent world. Over thirty years ago, at the end of the 1960s, the Cold War was an accepted reality of global politics, the process of decolonization was still in progress, the idea of a uniﬁed Europe with a single currency was unheard of, the United States was mired in a war in Vietnam, and the economic boom of Asia was still years in the future. Richard Nixon was president of the United States, Mao Tse-tung (not yet Mao Zedong) ruled China, Leonid Brezhnev guided the Soviet Union, and Harold Wilson was prime minister of the United Kingdom. Authoritarian dictators still ruled most of Latin America, the Middle East was reeling in the wake of the Six-Day War, and Shah Reza Pahlavi was at the height of his power in Iran. Clearly, the past 30 years have been witness to a great deal of historical change, and it is to this change that this series is primarily addressed. With the help of a distinguished advisory board, we have selected nations whose political, economic, and social affairs mark them as among the most

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Series Foreword

important in the waning years of the twentieth century, and for each nation we have found an author who is recognized as a specialist in the history of that...

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Amazon Rainforest
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Religion
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Weber State University
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This is the first time I had heard about Latino. It is really a new knowledge for me. Although I am very confused and did not understand all of thing about Latino, I still enjoy and interested in their history. According to the book “Harvest of Empire-Juan Gonzales,” it said: “…Latinos numbered a mere 9.1 million and represented just 4.5 percent of the population as recently as 1970.” (Juan Gonzalez, p.16) In my opinion, when Latino...

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